The Schoolmaster and other stories - Penn State University

The Schoolmaster & other storiessquinting at them. He squinted with the left eye.“What Pavel Alexandritch?”“The actor; he comes here every Tuesday…. He musthave put on yours instead of his own…. So I must haveput both pairs in her room, his and yours. Here’s a go!”“Then go and change them!”“That’s all right!” sniggered Semyon, “go and changethem…. Where am I to find him now? He went off anhour ago…. Go and look for the wind in the fields!”“Where does he live then?”“Who can tell? He comes here every Tuesday, andwhere he lives I don’t know. He comes and stays thenight, and then you may wait till next Tuesday….”“There, do you see, you brute, what you have done?Why, what am I to do now? It is time I was at Madamela Générale Shevelitsyn’s, you anathema! My feet arefrozen!”“You can change the boots before long. Put on theseboots, go about in them till the evening, and in theevening go to the theatre…. Ask there for Blistanov, theactor…. If you don’t care to go to the theatre, you willhave to wait till next Tuesday; he only comes here onTuesdays….”“But why are there two boots for the left foot?” askedthe piano-tuner, picking up the boots with an air of disgust.“What God has sent him, that he wears. Through poverty… where is an actor to get boots? I said to him‘What boots, Pavel Alexandritch! They are a positivedisgrace!’ and he said: ‘Hold your peace,’ says he, ‘andturn pale! In those very boots,’ says he, ‘I have playedcounts and princes.’ A queer lot! Artists, that’s the onlyword for them! If I were the governor or anyone in command,I would get all these actors together and clapthem all in prison.”Continually sighing and groaning and knitting hisbrows, Murkin drew the two left boots on to his feet,and set off, limping, to Madame la GénéraleShevelitsyn’s. He went about the town all day long tuningpianos, and all day long it seemed to him that everyonewas looking at his feet and seeing his patched bootswith heels worn down at the sides! Apart from his moral110